Late Night Reading
by Yesacia
Summary: Duo reflects a little bit about his love for reading and makes an interesting discovery about a parallel between one of his favorite fictional characters and his long time friend he never noticed before. T for language. This is just sort of an idea, pretty short, it's based when the guys are in their 20s and still adjusting. Comes out of the On Again, Off Again universe.


The war was over. Finally and at last. He didn't have to worry about looking over his shoulder anymore, he didn't have to worry about the lives of his friends, the few that remained alive. He grew up, got married, and had children, and lived a normal, human, civilian life. Well, as normal as any wizard could!

Duo chuckled to himself amusedly as he shut the book, heaving a relieved sigh. He could relate to the boy, he knew the feeling. He tossed his long braid over his shoulder and ran his hands over the cover art of his favorite book, enjoying the feeling of the smooth gold puffy letters under his rough dry hands. He sighed as he glanced at the stack of books next to him and pulled out another titled 'Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone'. He must have read it a hundred times, most times here in his little 'nest' wrapped in a blanket on the wide windowsill. Taking in the luxury of the story the pages told, something he could never have done at Harry's age. Hell, he couldn't even _read_ at Harry's age. It wasn't until a mission gone wrong on an old OZ base that Duo had finally broke down. He could almost still feel the cold creeping in as the base's security system re-initiated suddenly, the way the timer ticked on the screen. He and Wu Fei couldn't get out, and as much as Duo wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, a self detonating base at 15 years old wasn't exactly top of the list. He and his friend were going to die because of a misdirected hacking technique on Duo's part. As the last bit of panic set in, Duo broke down, apologizing to Wu Fei, blaming himself. The shock on Wu Fei's face and the way his mouth came around the words _'you can't read?'_. Wu Fei had promised to teach him, if they got out. He never was sure if Wu Fei had intended to actually teach him or give him something to focus on, to clear his mind and settle him enough to get Duo to help him firgure a way out. In any case, Duo found them a way out just as accidentally as he'd gotten them into the mess in the first place. It was months before he could band-aid his pride enough to go back to Wu Fei to see how serious he was. When the chance rolled around the Duo and Wu Fei had free time together, Wu Fei taught him the best he could. He was surprisingly patient with him, but Duo picked it up fairly quickly.

Now that the fighting was over, Duo had all kinds of books. He made frequent trips to the library, so much so, that the librarians pretty much knew him on a first name basis by this point. They always let him know when there were new books coming in. Sometimes he'd visit Quatre between deliveries and hide away in his personal library. Trowa would let him borrow his medical books when he went in for Vet Tech training, and he'd 'aquire' some of Heero's computer manuals and engineering textbooks. He read Hilde's fantasy romances and Cathy's westerns, Wu Fei's texts on history and botany. Things online, even fanfiction. He'd even tried his hand at writing, a few self-insert type 'fanfics' about some of his favorite Terry Brooks novels, or his recent fascination, Harry Potter. He'd even seen all the movies. He loved magic, the thought of it, the science of it. He'd read anything if you left it alone with him long enough. He didn't like to read in front of people, though. Always saying 'I didn't know you liked to read' or something like that. Something in him hurt for it, his pride maybe, because of course no one would know, he never _could_ read so why would he? It was nice to relate to the characters without feeling like he was in some kind of group therapy, because if Duo hated anything it was therapy. He wasn't sure how Heero could stand it. Just trust a stranger, or a group of strangers, enough to lay your heart out there? It couldn't be done without reprecussion, but with books? He could feel everything without giving anything to anyone, if he could trust anything it would be his books. With that thought he hunkered down his lean body into a small ball on his blanket with a content sigh, reading the first chapter again with his head leaning on the cool glass of the window, quietly hoping the snow that was predicted would be enough to keep him from work so he could read through the night. As if to shatter his peaceful thoughts he heard a creaking outside the room.

"Duo?" His shoulder relaxed at the familiar voice as Heero turned into the room, quietly pushing open the door as he shuffled in, a loose blue and red jersey hung off one shoulder and sweatpants dragged the floor. He couldn't help but find it all adorable. Heero yawned and ran a hand through his ruffled brown hair, lids heavy and blue eyes seemed to still be fogged in sleep. He still had an imprint on the side of his face and his forhead where he'd fallen asleep. Looked like a keyboard. "Figured you'd be in here."

"Hey 'Ro! You look like you just got up!" He snapped the book shut and through his legs over the edge on the sill. "What's up?"

"It's almost two in the morning..." Duo blinked, leaning to look at the small digital clock by his bed. He hadn't realized he'd been reading so long.

"Oh...well, how's it looking down stairs?" He asked, trying to change the subject. Heero shrugged sleepily, and waved a hand towards Duo's bed.

"Still snowing. When are you going to bed?" Duo shrugged.

"I dunno, I'm not tired." He glanced out the window and smiled. It wasn't much snow, a couple of inches maybe the way it covered Heero's car, but enough for him to hopefully skip out on work in the morning, which, apparently, was sooner than he thought.

"You need to get more sleep, maybe you should talk to the doctor about your insomnia."

"I don't have insomnia, I'm just...not tired." Duo spat, turning sharply to Heero. "I don't need to see a damn Doctor about it either." Heero let out a long frustrated sigh, and motioned to the bed.

"Then just go to bed."

"I will when I'm tired." Duo snapped, turning to his books, but catching the slump of Heero's shoulders out of the corner of his eyes. He felt his mouth twitching as he turned back to him. "I mean...you look tired too. You've been pulling doubles lately, just...go on to bed I'll be fine." Heero raised a brow with a hint of disbelief, and Duo held up a hand, as if swearing by it. "I'll be fine, promise! You pass out in front of computer again maybe I'll send you to a doctor." He snorted and curled back up in the window, wrapping himself back up in his blanket, a little colder than he'd been before. He opened his book to read again when he heard a shuffling sound. He dismissed it until Heero sat up in the windowsill, the space not quite big enough for two men in their early twenties. Duo sighed and closed his book, staring, almost glaring, at Heero. It was quiet for a moment before Heero nodded to his book.

"What's that?" Duo shrugged.

"It book about a kid who is normal but ends up being this special wizard, and there's this bad guy that killed his parents and is out to get him too, and there's this school called Hogwarts where they learn-Harry and his friends, I mean- ah, it's nothing you'd like." Heero was silent for a while and Duo went back to reading. It wasn't unusual for Heero to just come in and watch him do things, he was just kind of weird that way. Duo had learned through the years to just tune him out and let him be, it would almost be like he wasn't there. Until Heero poked at the cover and nearly made him drop the book, nearly falling off the sill himself to catch it.

"What's that?" He asked, and Duo grumbled.

"You don't just knock things out of peoples' hands, 'Ro, it's-"

"On his head. Is it a disease?" It took Duo a minute to process what Heero was asking before he looked to the cover.

"Oh, Harry? He's got this scar on his head that-"

"The chances of getting a scar that shape are fairly unlikely." Heero said flatly, and Duo rolled his eyes.

"So are the chances of teachers turning into cats." He tried to find his page again when he was interrupted. Again.

"Do they?" Duo let out an exhasperated sigh.

"What?"

"The teachers." Heero explained. "Do they turn into cats?" When Duo nodded Heero snorted. "Now that's fairly unlikely."

"Your not going to leave until I go to bed, are you?" Heero didn't reply, or move. "It was getting crowded in this window anyway." He slumped out of the sill clumsily, tugging at the blanket Heero was still partially sitting on. Taking the Hint Heero stood, and Duo slumped into bed. "Hit the light on your way out." Heero, however didn't move. Duo cursed under his breath as he sat up. "You know, the light switch? Flip it down when you leave, as in out that door?" He pointed towards the door, but Heero had a stange look on his face like he had something to say, but made his way to the door. "Ugh...Hold up. What's wrong?" Heero stopped, but he didn't turn.

"I...fell asleep at the computer. it made a sound, and woke me up, it was beeping, like a..." His voice trailed off. "I had a dream, it was like a memory, but the end was...not as good..."

"A nightmare. We all get them. Doesn't your doctor have a word for that? Post trauma stress or something?" Heero turned to look at him.

"Right." He looked down at the floor.

"Do you want to talk about it, or...?"

"You...died." Duo froze, not quite sure how to handle the situation. "I felt your blood." Heero looked at his hand, and pulled at his shirt. "I saw your eyes. Heard that sound. You died." His voice didn't ring with any emotion, but his eyes gave him away. The way he held his arms, like Duo was still there, dead.

"Well!" Duo said quickly, and a bit louder than he meant to. "I'm not. I'm right here, reading my books about worlds where fairly unlikely things are normal, your right there, wearing that stupid jersey again, you know Quatre bought you one in your size, right?" Heero's face turned almost offended.

"I watched my first football game in this one."

"Yeah and you've been in that one so many times you've damn near wore it to death." Duo snorted, tracing the almost frayed collar of the shirt with his eyes, and Heero's shoulders.

"I like it." His voice was almost petulent, and Duo laughed.

"Yeah, I can tell..." Duo's eyes drifted up to Heero's face. His nose was a little crooked from being broken so many times, and under his gray-blue eyes was dark with lack of regular sleep. His hair was a mess and he had scars all over his body. Luckily most of his scars were from the teenage years in the war, and they healed over better and were more faint than some of the others. Regardless, he was, as always, very pleasant to look at. At least from Duo's point of view. Heero's eyes filled with confusion and the faintest pink dusted his cheeks.

"What?" Duo shook his head and shrugged.

"Ah, nothin', just waitin' on you. You want to talk more, or...?" Heero stood awkwardly for a moment, and ran a hand through his hair. Duo's eyes followed his hand, when they caught something they never had noticed before. "Hey. Hey, come here." He motioned Heero over, and though perplexed Heero went, sitting on the edge of the bed beside ran his finger through Heero's hair, mostly to lift the ragged bangs from his face. He snickered to himself and Heero pulled away sharply.

"What?"

"I dunno if it's the light or me not sleepin'...but..." He pointed to Heero's forehead. "That's...what'd ya say? 'Fairly Unlikely'?" Heero's face twisted into different emotions before pickin up Duo's digital clock, looking at his reflection in the chrome colored exterier. His eyes locked on to a somewhat Z shaped scar coming out of his hairline. He frowned and set it down a bit harder than he had too. Duo bust out laughing, falling back on the bed. Between guffaws and snorts he started quoting the movies. "Yer a wizard, Heero!" He rolled off the bed with a loud thump. He groaned as he felt the pain stinging up his arm and through his face but he couldn't help laughing. Heero stood in a huff and made his way to the door. "Aw, C'mon, 'Ro!" Duo called after him, whiping a tear from his eye with one hand and holding his gut with the other. "You're gunna be the next Finnegan!" The way Heero turned around in complete confusion just made it all the more hilarious to Duo, and Heero rolled his eyes, shaking his head. There was a quite 'go to sleep, Duo' before he shut the door. The bang just reminded him of a certain young Irish pyrotechnic wizard and he burst into another giggle fit.


End file.
